Jimmy Shane, world champion racer, in HdG Sunday

Jimmy Shane pilots his Graham Trucking hydroplane down the straightaway in Qatar earlier this year.

Jimmy Shane pilots his Graham Trucking hydroplane down the straightaway in Qatar earlier this year. (PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER DENSLOW)

RANDY McROBERTS, rmcroberts@theaegis.com

Havre de Grace's Jimmy Shane is a two-time defending World Champion in H1 Unlimited Hydroplane racing, and he and his family will celebrate his recent accomplishments in Havre de Grace Sunday.

Shane, driver of the U-5 Graham Trucking hydroplane, will be on the deck of MacGregor's Restaurant Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. Joining him are the rest of the racing Shane family, father Stu, mother Robin and sister Kelly.

Among them, 18 world records have been recorded.

"Winning in Qatar made it feel like a true world championship victory," Shane said earlier this week. "It's the second biggest thing you can win in boat racing. The number one thing is the Gold Cup and that is held every year in Detroit in July. It's the world's oldest motor sports trophy at 105 years old."

The 2012 Oryx Cup title was won in Qatar in January and a month later, a race for the 2013 world title was up for grabs, and Shane won that, too.

Shane was a rookie driver in the H1 Unlimited class in 2012 and he's signed to race again in 2013. "Honestly, I could not ask for any more feeling of pride. Being from a small town, doing the stuff I have done my entire life racing boats, it has all added up to fulfilling my dream," Shane said.

This dream started a number of years ago for Shane, as a young teenager. "As a kid, I took a tour when I was 13 of the Budweiser Shop, which was the best well known boat of all-time in boat racing," Shane said. "I said, one day I'm going to drive that boat." That boat is the Miss Budweiser.

Shane's Graham Trucking ride is Miss Budweiser.

"The boat that I drive is the very last Miss Budweiser that was built in 2001. In 2004 they stopped as sponsor and in 2006 Ted Porter bought two Budweiser boats," Shane said.

So, by what Shane calls "shipping delays," the boat and hauler will be in Havre de Grace and on display as well Sunday.

"The boats were supposed to go to Houston," Shane said, noting the delays with a chuckle. "The owners had decided whichever port the ship could get to first, will be the one that will be more beneficial to all the owners and teams so that they have more time to work on the boats for first race in June. There's very, very little down time and it just so happened to be Baltimore."

With that news, the decision was easy. "Once we found out it was coming to Baltimore, we thought, why don't we have the boat come up here, we can get some work done on it, the owner will be happy and we were planning on having a little party anyway, because of how big a deal it was," Shane said.

The boast and hauler will be displayed on Franklin Street, directly across from MacGregor's, from 1 to 4 p.m. The trophies will also be on display.

"It's honestly, for anyone that's been in the boat racing industry, it's the pinnacle of boat racing, it's the top of the ladder," Shane said of the H1 Unlimited Series. "The world's fastest racing boats. It doesn't get any higher than that."

The races from Qatar and Dubai will be shown on TV and autographs and more will be available.

"Not too many people know about it," Shane said. "They don't have a sense of actually what the boat is like, how big, fast the equipment really is. I'm really hoping that people will be in awe, how big everything is."

The dimensions on the boat are 29 feet, 10 inches long and 14 feet, 6 inches wide. Weight is 6,750 pounds. The boat is capable of reaching more than 200 mph on straightaways and running average lap speeds from 130 to 165 mph.